Daewon in Korea publishes the fifth volume of Shinichi Hoshi’s Short Short Series, The Ending You Wished For (Onozomino Ketsumatsu).
National Public Radio in the United States broadcasts Shoulder-Top Secretary (Kata no Ue no Hisho) in its Selected Shorts program. The audio is available on NPR’s podcast for five weeks.
1,389 stories are submitted to the 11th annual Hoshi Awards.
Kadokawa’s The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robotto) reaches 2.5 million copies.
Daewon in Korea publishes the forth volume of Shinichi Hoshi’s Short Short Series, Heaven with a Demon (Akuma no Iru Tengoku).
Shinchosha selects Mr. N’s Amusement Park (Enushi no Yuenchi) as one of eight Premium Covers for its 100 Books of Summer fair.
NHK On Demand extends streaming of Shinichi Hoshi’s Strange-Strange Stories series one year after the original broadcast.
Meijishoin in Tokyo selects The Man from Earth (Chikyu kara kita Otoko) in its Literature textbook for high schoolers.
Yilin Press in China publishes The Friendly Demon (Shitashigena Akuma) and The Mysterious Young Man (Nazo no Seinen). This concludes the four-volume Shinichi Hoshi Fantasy Series.
Daewon in Korea publishes the first three volumes of Shinichi Hoshi’s Short Short Series, Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan) Welcome, Earth! (Yokoso Chikyu-san) and Bonbon and Nightmares (Bonbon to Akumu).
Chunichi Newspaper on December 23rd and Tokyo Newspaper on December 26th publish the interview with Marina, Hoshi’s daughter, where she talks about the memory of Hoshi.
Tokyo Newspaper and Chunichi Newspaper, on December 5th, feature Hoshi’s life in commemoration of 25 years since Hoshi’s passing on December 30th 1997.
Kasetsart University in Thailand publishes a textbook for its students who study Japanese and includes Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan).
University of Education in Hanoi, Vietnam, publishes Heaven with a Demon (Akuma no iru Tengoku), a collection of Hoshi’s 24 short stories in Vietnamese.
Kodansha’s Shukan Gendai magazine’s November 28th issue has an eight-page article on Hoshi.
Shinichi Hoshi’s Strange-Strange Stories is now sold as a DVD from NHK Enterprise.
Dee Ten in Taiwan publishes Japan Fantasy Collection. It is a textbook for Chinese speaking people studying Japanese and has Hoshi’s 13 short stories in both Chinese and Japanese. It also includes a QR code to let readers listen to audiobook versions.
Czech Radio broadcasts The Doll (Ningyo) and Road to Fortune (Zaisan he no Michi). Streaming is available for four weeks.
2,767 stories are submitted to the 10th annual Hoshi Awards.
Anhui Children’s Publishing House in China publishes the last five volumes of the ten-volume Shinichi Hoshi Children’s Sci-Fi Series. They are Attractive Medicine (Miryokutekina Kusuri), The Building (Aru Tatemono), Time Box (Taimu Bokkusu), The Convenient Bag (Benrina Kaban), and The Mean Planet (Ijiwaruna Hoshi).
Rye Field in Taiwan publishes a collection of Hoshi’s short stories Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan) in Chinese.
Cinefil Wowow Plus on Prime Video starts to stream Flowers and Moles, an animation based on Hoshi’s story Flowers and Secrets (Hana to Himitsu).
The 59th annual Japan Sci-Fi Convention in Fukushima offers two lectures and an exhibition of Hoshi’s foreign books.
NHK General Television starts broadcasting reruns of twelve Shinichi Hoshi’s Strange-Strange Stories episodes.
Shinchosha selects The Fairy Distribution Company (Yousei Haikyu Gaisha) as one of eight Premium Covers for its 100 Books of Summer fair.
Due to popular demand, Dolpagu Theater Company performs Martyrdom (Junkyo) again at Hongik Art Center in Seoul, Korea. The first performance was in October 2021.
NHK (BS Premium and BS4K) broadcasts the drama series Shinichi Hoshi’s Strange-Strange Stories every Tuesday for 20 weeks. The episodes include Miss Bokko, The Department of Sustainable Living, and On a Dim Planet. The series is also available on NHK Plus (streaming) and NHK World Premium.
Shinchosha’s Welcome, Earth! (Yokoso Chikyu-san) reaches 1.5 million copies.
Nikkei announces that the short story written by Kamome Ashizawa with the help of AI is one of the winners - 5th place - of the 9th annual Hoshi Awards.
University of Warsaw in Poland publishes Heaven with a Demon (Akuma no Iru Tengoku), a collection of 11 short stories translated by the students of Applied Linguistics.
Home Drama Channel in Japan rebroadcasts Men in Space (Uchu no Otokotachi), Annoying One (Urusai Aite), and A Targeted Planet (Nerawareta Hoshi). All were part of the 2009 International Emmy winning NHK Shinichi Hoshi Short-Shorts series.
Shinchosha's Miss Bokko reaches 2.6 million copies.
Chikuma Shobo in Japan publishes Philosophy of Shinichi Hoshi, a literary criticism of Hoshi’s complete works by Michiaki Asaba.
Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery holds the Exhibition of Makoto Wada’s works. Makoto Wada was one of the two main illustrators for Hoshi’s Japanese books, and this exhibit includes some original artworks for Hoshi’s books.
Dolpagu Theater Company performs Martyrdom (Junkyo) at Hongik Art Center in Seoul, Korea.
2,603 stories are submitted to the 9th annual Hoshi Awards.
Yilin’s Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan) is selected as one of Weibo’s Top 10 Novels/Short Story Collections of August 2021 by the book reviewers in China.
Yilin in China publishes the first two volumes of Shinichi Hoshi’s Amazing Stories series: Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan), and Hey, Come on Out! (Oi, Detekoi).
Shinchosha selects The Delusion Bank (Moso Ginko) as one of the eight Premium Covers for its annual summer fair at bookstores around Japan.
Anhui Science and Technology Publishing’s Sci-Fi Classics for Teenagers series in Chinese includes two of Hoshi’s short stories. The Greetings from Space (Uchu no Aisatsu) is in the book A Drama in the Air, and Hey, Come on Out! (Oi, Detekoi) is in the book The Shipwreck Island.
Kadokawa selects The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robot) for its 2021 Kadokawa Festival.
Froebel Kan in Tokyo republishes The Flowers and Secret (Hana to Himitsu) picture book, illustrated by Makoto Wada.
Shinchosha’s The Patched Planet (Tsugihagi Planet) reaches 100,000 copies. This book is a collection of Hoshi’s short stories that were not included in any of his books until 2013.
Mr. N’s Amusement Park (Enushi no Yuenchi) is selected for Kodansha Paperback’s 50th Anniversary Spring Fair.
NHK Radio broadcasts And Then There Were… (Soshite Daremo…) on the Pavilion program.
Shinchosha’s Future Aesop (Mirai Aesop) reaches 1.75 million copies.
Besna Kobila in Serbia publishes The Other Side of the Swing (Buranko no Mukode), which was translated into Serbian by the students of Belgrade University.
Japan Movie Channel rebroadcasts the 1989 drama The Season of Trouble with Women (Jonan no Kisetsu) based on Hoshi’s short story of the same title.
Head of Zeus in London publishes an anthology We, Robots: Artificial Intelligence in 100 Stories, edited by Simon Ings. One of the stories included is Miss Bokko (Bokko chan).
British online magazine Granta publishes Pretty Polly (Kawaii Polly), translated by Eli K.P. William. Its 20 for 2020 project showcases twenty new translations of Japanese literature. Pretty Polly is free to read for non-subscribers untill May 2021.
2,339 stories are sent in to the eighth annual Hoshi Awards.
Ehime Prefecture Art Museum starts Hiroshi Manabe 2020 Exhibit to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his passing. The exhibit includes many of Hoshi’s book cover illustrations.
Talk event by the French translator of Bokko chan is held at Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris in France.
Artificial Intelligence Exploration Research Center offers a free online seminar for college students who want to write stories using AI and enter the Hoshi Awards.
The Hoshi Awards website offers Let’s Invent Stories video in order to help primary and middle school students write sci-fi stories during the COVID pandemic. The video is based on the writing workshop of Yu Esaka. (The free viewing period ended with the deadline of the awards entries on September 30)
Shinchosha selects Miss Bokko (Bokko chan) as one of the eight Premium Covers for its 100 Books of Summer fair. This is the 17th time that Miss Bokko was selected for this annual event.
China’s Higher Education Press includes Squion (Rion) in its Japanese Language Course 3. This is a textbook to teach the Japanese language to Chinese people.
Kadokawa selects The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robot) for its annual summer book fair, Kadokawa Festival 2020.
Kadokawa republishes a collection of essays The Whimsical School (Kimagure Gakumonjo). This concludes the republishing project of Hoshi’s six previously published essay collections: Memorandums of the Whimsical Planet, The Whimsical Encyclopedia, The Whimsical Travel Journals, The Whimsical Et Cetera, Curiosity for This and That, and The Whimsical School.
Rohan Prakashan of India publishes a collection of 21 short stories Shinzen Kiss in Marati language. (Actual publishing date was August 2018)
Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm includes A Well-Kept Life (Yukitodoita Seikatsu) in its Norwegian literature textbook for the eighth grade Norsk 8. The Norwegian title is Automatisk eksistens.
Fukkan Dot Com of Japan publishes Tezuka Osamu's Birdman Anthology with an afterword by Hoshi.
Omake Books of France publishes Bokko Chan, a collection of the fifty best stories from Hoshi’s early career.
Kadokawa republishes Curiosity for This and That (Arekore Kokishin) paperback with a new book cover. It is a collection of Hoshi’s essays written between 1984 and 1985.
Iwaki city’s Board of Education gives out booklets with a short biography of Hajime Hoshi to the fifth and sixth graders in the city elementary schools. Hajime, Shinichi's father, was born in Iwaki city in 1873.
Michiaki Asaba holds the thirty-third Hoshi Yomi Seminar in Tokyo. Asaba, a literary critic, holds the on-going book club specializing in Hoshi’s books every month.
Kadokawa republishes The Whimsical Et Cetera (Kimagure Et Cetera) paperback with a new book cover. It is a collection of Hoshi’s essays written between 1975 and 1983.
Kagakudo 100 Books Committee selects Hoshi’s short-short collection, The Beginning of the Star (Hoshi no Hajimari), as one of their 100 recommended books to encourage young adults to study science. The committee is comprised of members of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, and the Editorial Engineering Laboratory.
1,878 stories are sent in to the seventh annual Hoshi Awards.
Talk event of Marina Hoshi and Sumi Konno is held at Asahi Culture School in Tokyo. They talk about the songs written by Kimiko Koganei and her relationships to brother Ogai Mori and grandson Shinichi Hoshi.
Students of Myongji School perform Human, Human! a play based on six of Hoshi’s short-short stories at Tri Bowl Theater in Seoul.
NHK Enterprises re-releases The Space City 008 DVD that includes one episode each of Hoshi’s The Spaceship Sirika, Osamu Tezuka’s The Galaxy Boys Brigade, and Sakyo Komatsu’s The Space City 008. All performed by puppets of Takeda Ningyoza between 1961 and 1970.
In a new book by Aritsune Toyota The Birth of Japan Sci-Fi – The Writers of Imagination and Science, he reminisces about friendships with Hoshi and other first generation sci-fi writers.
Shinchosha selects A Dinosaur Afternoon (Gogo no Kyoryu) as one of the eight Premium Covers for its annual summer fair at bookstores around Japan.
Kadokawa selects The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robot) as one of the titles for its summer book fair, Kadokawa Festival 2019. The Whimsical Robot reaches 2.45 million copies.
National Theater of Korea performs Miss Bokko - Shinichi Hoshi Short-Short Selection (original title I’m a Murderer) at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
National Theater of Korea performs I'm a Murderer at Baek Seonghui & Jang Minho Theater in Seoul.
Shinchosha paperback Miss Bokko reaches 2.5 million copies.
Niigata Nippo’s evening newspaper Otona Plus runs a story on Hoshi’s grandfather Yoshikiyo Koganei.
Anhui Children’s Publishing House in China publishes five volumes of Hoshi’s short-short collections: The Whimsical Robot, Delusion Bank, The Dream City, Emotion Televisions, and Welcome, Earth!
Fukushima Minpo newspaper runs Hajime Hoshi’s biography written by Marina Hoshi for five Saturdays.
Ryuzo Torii Memorial Museum in Tokushima holds an exhibition Searching for the Origin of Japanese People that features Yoshikiyo Koganei. Yoshikiyo (1859-1944) is Hoshi’s grandfather, and was a leading anthropologist.
Kadokawa republishes The Whimsical Travel Journals (Kimagure Taikenkikou) paperback with a new book cover illustration by Yoshio Hayawaka. It is a collection of Hoshi’s travel journals during 1970’s.
Nakosozeki Literature History Museum in Iwaki city, Fukushima, holds a small exhibition of Hajime Hoshi’s books and memorabilia. Hajime (1873-1951) is Hoshi’s father and is the founder of Hoshi University.
2,489 stories are sent in to the sixth annual Hoshi Awards.
Yomiuri Kodomo News Paper selects The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robot) as one of their recommended books of the year and donates copies to 1500 childcare facilities in Japan.
Shinchosha selects Thief Inc. (Tozoku Gaisha) as one of the eight Premium Covers for its annual summer fair at bookstores around Japan. Premium Cover titles include works by Osamu Dazai, Soseki Natsume and Kenji Miyazawa.
Ehime Prefecture Art Museum starts the Shinichi Hoshi and Hiroshi Manabe Book Illustration Exhibit. Manabe had worked with Hoshi for forty years as an illustrator. Together they produced many iconic books such as Welcome, Earth! (Yokoso Chikyu-san).
Kadokawa selects The Whimsical Robot (Kimagure Robot) as one of the titles for its summer book fair, Kadokawa Festival 2018.
Penguin Books of England publishes The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. It includes Hoshi’s Shoulder-Top Secretary (Kata no ueno Hisho) translated by Jay Rubin.
The website for the Reading Sci-Fi Animation project opens. You can now view the eleven animated short films that are based on the Hoshi Award winning stories created by the graduate students of Tokyo Zokei University.
Setagaya Literary Museum begins displaying the Sci-Fi World Part Two: Shinichi Hoshi in schools and public facilities as part of its Traveling Literary Museum program. The panels introduce Hoshi’s five stories including Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan) and Hey! Come On Out! (Oi, Detekoi).
Japanese Expression, Literature textbook for Japanese high school students by Kyoiku Shuppan, includes Hoshi’s essay A Path to Creation (Sosaku no Keiro) in its revised edition.
Dee Ten of Taiwan publishes the second volume of Japanese Short Fantasies that consists of Hoshi’s 13 stories such as A Well-Kept Life (Yukitodoita Seikatsu) and On a Dim Planet (Usugurai Hoshi de).
Yahoo! Japan News features Marina Hoshi’s essay The Things You’ll See When You Line Up Ogai, Kimiko and Shinichi.
The Bubbles ー The Person who Connects Ogai Mori and Shinichi Hoshi (Minawa no Uta ー Mori Ogai to Hoshi Shinichi o Tsunagu Hito) is published by the Hoshi Library. It is a collection of Kimiko Koganei’s waka and essays. Kimiko is the younger sister of Ogai Mori, and the grandmother of Shinichi Hoshi. (Waka is a form of short poetry consisting of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables instead of Haiku’s 5-7-5)
I’m a Murderer, the National Theater Company of Korea’s play based on Hoshi’s 10 short stories, won the 54th Dong-A Theater Award in three categories: Director, Acting and Stage Arts.
Bookstores around Japan participate in Shinchosha’s Hoshi Fair to commemorate the 60 years since his debut and 20 years since his passing. The special paper wraps around the books include recommendation words by cartoonists Moto Hagio and Naoki Urasawa, and comedian Hikari Ota.
The Christmas concert on the 24th at the Symphony Hall in Osaka, Christmas with Ninth Symphony, offers a reading of Hoshi’s The Crisis (Kiki).
Shinchosha publishes The Evolved Monkeys – The Best (Shinkashita Sarutachi - the Best). This paperback is a collection of essays that Hoshi wrote in the 60’s and 70’s about America’s one-frame cartoons. Hoshi was a collector of American cartoons.
Dee Ten of Taiwan publishes the first volume of Japanese Short Fantasies that consists of Hoshi’s 13 stories such as The Road to Escape (Toso no Michi) and The Gift (Omiyage). This is a textbook for Chinese speakers to learn Japanese and includes a CD.
National Theater Company of Korea puts on a play I am a Murderer that is based on Hoshi’s 10 short stories including Miss Bokko (Bokko-chan) and Men in Space (Uchu no Otokotachi).
Japanese children’s clothing company Miki House starts Shinichi Hoshi Short-Short Picture Book Series, each book consisting of two short stories. The first three volumes to be published are: Hey! Come on Out! (Oi, Detekoi) & The Dog in the Mirror (Kagami no naka no Inu) illustrated by Rie Nakajima, The Night We Lost Our Friend (Tomo o Ushinatta Yoru) & The Deal (Torihiki) illustrated by Rokudai Tanaka, The Traveling Circus (Sakasu no Tabi) & Medicated Dreams (Kusuri to Yume) illustrated by Momoro.
The Harvest Moon Viewing event on top of Mount Minobu, organized by FM Fuji Radio, includes a reading of Hoshi’s On the Misty Planet (Kiri no Hoshi de) by its DJ Yuichi Mori.
2,209 stories are sent in to the fifth annual Hoshi Awards.
The Vietnamese publisher, Phuong Nam Book, publishes Mr. N’s Amusement Park (Enushi no Yuenchi) in Vietnamese. It also publishes an anthology of Japanese short stories, The Journey – Japan Exhibition, that includes 10 of Hoshi’s stories such as The Chair (Isu) and The Strange Cat (Fushigina Neko).
The Japanese television program, Listen with Your Eyes, starts a monthly new series, Shinichi Hoshi’s Short Shorts by Sign Language. The first story of the series was The Promise (Yakusoku).
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan, of which Hoshi was one of the founding members and the first president, becomes a general incorporated association.
Shinchosha releases the ebook The Record of My Grandfather, Yoshikiyo Koganei (Sofu Koganei Yoshikiyo no Ki) in two volumes. This non-fiction was originally published in 1974, and is the longest of all of Hoshi’s works.
Shinchosha selects Aesop Fables for the Future (Mirai Isoppu) as one of the eight Premium Covers for its annual summer fair at bookstores around Japan. Premium Cover titles include works by Osamu Dazai, Soseki Natsume and Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
Setagaya Literary Museum begins displaying the Introduction to the Sci-Fi World Part One: Shinichi Hoshi panels in schools and public facilities in the Setagaya district of Tokyo as a part of its Traveling Literary Museum. The panels introduce Hoshi’s works such as The Last Earthling (Saigo no Chikyujin) and Waaah, Waaah (A-n, a-n).
Kadokawa publishes a Tsubasa Bunko version of The Tale of the Bamboo Princess (Taketori Monogatari – Kaguyahime no Ohanashi) for younger readers. This science fiction tale from the ninth century is considered to be the oldest Japanese novel. It was translated by Hoshi into modern Japanese.
NHK World’s radio program Short Stories reruns Flower of Prosperity (Hanei no Hana) in 17 languages on March 25th.
At Takashi Hamada’s concert in Yokohama, Sound Track of Your Life, actor Seiji Fukushi recites The Box (Hako) with a live performance by an orchestra.
With the 90th reprinting, the paperback Heaven with a Demon (Akuma no iru Tengoku) by Shinchosha reaches 1,600,000 copies.
This is the 60th anniversary year of the publication of Sextra (Sekisutora), Hoshi’s debut work.
